Here Today......Gone Tommorrow.

The school's daffodils were looking good for quite some time.  Yesterday I brought my camera to work and snapped some more shots.




I could tell they were looking pretty weary.  I didn't realize the very next day, today, they would all be shriveled up and gone.  It must have been their due date as not a single flower is looking good this morning. They all look like the two back flowers and worse.

The small potted rose is doing well in its new soil.  The budded plant is now showing off with one bloom. I am thinking that second bud will open in a few days.  I know people who have set these out in the garden once the weather warms up.  I think I would like to repot it then again and bring it inside for the winter.

This is a vacant shot as the planter with hardy geraniums is not on its shelf yet.  It won't be brought out until next month.  I am going to have to rebuild that blue door this summer as wasn't made of great wood.  I recycled a lot of wood and it doesn't weather as well as if I had bought the correct kind of wood.  I will have the old door for a pattern so it will make it easier to do.

It is a rainy, gloomy day today.  We need the moisture and a true rain probably won't be happening but any moisture we can add will be appreciated.  It is cool in temperature with a lot of wind out there.  I am in the upper classes of English today studying Literature and other such things.  I will be here all day and will miss the majority of the weather we are having.  I hope all are well.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Monday is a Start.......

The rhubarb is coming up now.  It is one of the earliest things to come up and last summer's rains make it ready to start this year.  We had a light rain a few days ago and it did help the soil a little.

A newly moved fern leafed peony is up in its new garden area.  The great thing about it is that there are two buds on it already.  Usually will I move sections to  other areas and it takes two years for me to get buds.  It is on the south side of the house and I am sure will bloom first of all the other peonies in the different garden area.

This is in its fourth year in this location and I see I have one stray bud on one of the sprouts.

While sitting here writing this blog I just remembered that I was going to thin this out and move some of it.  I probably can do that in a couple of weeks anyway.  It is funny how one forgets to do things like this.  I guess gardening is like that anyway as I do things when I see things to be done while I am wandering through the different areas.

I am going to keep my eye out to look for the newer variety of sedum that doesn't lie flat on the ground in the late season of its growth. I am also on the look out for milkweed plants or seed.  That is another story but I need to get on the net and see what I can find.

The phlox are coming up now at this time so I need to rake away some more leaves. I am not certain this shot is phlox but it does fill in the picture space for me. 

I have to go in to school this pm to sub for a half day in the Special Ed. room.  Because of that I need to get all my chores done this morning.  I need to water all those individual pots of tomato plants.  I think all but one plant rooted in so it was a great success.  The farmer in me likes to see them growing.  We are still a little cool this morning and we missed the rains as they are going to be south of us.  We have the gloomy looking day as the cloud cover from that storm is going to be over us most of the day.  I trust all of you will have a good day and thanks for stopping by today.

Great Joy for Easter.....

Let the earth rejoice for Jesus Christ is our Lord.

Weekend Happenings......

A new cactus that I photographed yesterday afternoon has bloomed it first for me.  The photo was just downloaded onto picasa and I see that the program decided to give my a black and white version also of it. You can see the other shot in colr on my Photo a Day blog by clicking here.

I ended up with over 70 plus tomato plants as I finished transferring them to bigger individual pots.  I do not plant that many tomatoes in the summer garden so I will be giving them away once they get a little bigger.  Those who receive them could babysit with them in their window rather than having them all fill my windows.  I never intended to plant that many seeds but the tiny seeds are so easy to drop in the ground.

I see that the next thing to work on is to get these three newly sprouted violets into their individual pots.  The yellow one concerns me so I am going to let the ground dry out a little more before I lift it. I think it is over-watered and yes it might just outright die because of it.

 I am getting blooms from the hardy geraniums but those plants are being removed for the window for space for  the new tomato plants.  I will probably have to clip back a bunch of new starts from the geraniums as they have grown really unmanageable long stems. They won't be happy with me putting them in lower light.  I don't have good luck starting clipping of geraniums in water but I might give it a go anyway.

It was below freezing this morning when we got up. I had ice on the water pans that I put out for the birds.  The squirrels are still at it but I guess it is like photographing wildlife so I just keep snapping shots.  We have a very large mother coon hanging around as she cleans up the bird seed and leftover cat food on the side porch. She is out only at night.  The feral cats are eating more now with the weather warming up and some tom cats are in really sad shape from fighting other tom cats.

It was a good day at the bookstore yesterday even thought the wind made it feel like winter.  Walking to the mall and back reminded us we should have worn our winter coats.  We made it to Good Friday services and now will be headed in for Sunday school and Church tomorrow.  We are alone so we try to eat out but it is hard to do so on Easter Sunday.  The big places are filled with lots of families so we will have to figure out a smaller place in which to go eat.  I you don't check in tomorrow I will wish you a happy Easter today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Good Friday......

The ditch lilies keep growing and the temperatures keep changing from high to low.  We were almost at freezing 32 degree F.  this morning which was brought to us from northern winds.  Two days ago we were 83 degrees F.   I guess the quality of light is more important for these plants than the temperature.  We did get rain earlier and also a sprinkle last night.

 Inside the house is the Easter lily with its first bloom starting to open.  I am amazed as to how this plant industry have these bulbs in the cold and then plant them to the exact date into soil and place them in warmth. That exact date makes them bloom also at an exact time.  This shipment looked like it had just come in and they all are going to have one or two blooms opened by Sunday.  This shot is awkward as it isn't all the way opened yet.

Also inside is the great blooming of the violets.  The weather and light has been perfect for them this year and I am seeing great blooms.

These tomatoes are in now for their last container before they go outside to be placed in the ground.  This one  is the beefsteak variety.  It is interesting that when I transplanted them they had the strongest stem and looked larger that the other varieties. I only lost one tomato yesterday as I worked on them.  I knew I had broken the stem so I put a small other plant in with it to be sure I had one plant growing in the pot. Keeping my four different kinds marked has been a hassle but I seem to be having that all in control this year. I hate to give away plants to friends if I really don't know what the variety is.

One more planting session this morning and I will have these all into pots.  I ran out of containers yesterday so I picked up 24 peat pots to finish off the job today.  If I don't have enough to finish the job, I will use some old violet pots to cover it.

This is a new violet that I bought last fall.  I immediately put it into real dirt and as you can see it did pay to do that.

No school today with teachers have workshop all day.   I think a bookstore visit might be in order today and then Good Friday services this evening.  I hope the cold, the rain and the wind is not hampering peoples safety out there.  Everyone take care and thanks for stopping by today.

Things for Thursday........

The fern leafed peony is one of the first things to come up in spring.  It blooms at least 3 weeks before the regular peonies start to put out blooms. I have scattered these plants all over my property and they seem to be all up right now. 

This one is at a new site this year and it has put up  a couple of sprouts for this year.  I have one that has a bud already showing on it which means this one probably won't bloom this year. They take a couple of years to develop. For those who are new to my posts this plant was brought into the country by wagon trains.  Its origin could be from overseas but for sure it was brought in from out east.

There are buds on the choke cherry tree.  They put out a green leaf that eventually turns to maroon by the end of the season.  Its leaves stay on for a very long time even though it buds out normally like other trees.

I brushed aside some leaves and found the phlox is putting up leaves.  It is now when I rake off my flowerbeds as I like the protection of the fall leaves.  Some people have their yards and flower gardens cleared from last fall but I am a late bloomer so to speak in getting the leaves removed.

I am having at least half of my violets blooming now.  They like the east window and the light that comes through in early spring.  They were in the sunshine for a while but now the sun doesn't come in with the earth tilting back. 

We had an inch of rain last night and I did hear thunder and lightening.  I was too tired to stay awake for it but we did need the rain storm to cool off our house.  We were almost 80 degrees F.  yesterday.  We will just hit 70 today.  We will be cooler again the rest of the week which is our normal temp. 

I am running to school this afternoon to cover for a science teacher.  A half day will be great to do and school is out at 3:30.  I won't be gone for very long.  I am planting more tomatoes into bigger pots this morning.  They need to be moved.  I may get a little raking done this afternoon.  I hope spring has sprung enough for everyone that you are having non winter weather.  We have squirrels scampering everywhere and birds are zooming by in a hurry getting sticks and leaves to make nests.  It is probably our best time of the year right now.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Off the Wall.....Day.

I took a shot of this large mural on the band room wall yesterday. One of the art students painted it on the wall during the summer.

I think that it was a CD design that she copied for the design.  I have yet to read the words on it.  Did you notice the heat pipes that are coming down from the ceiling?

Get your duck into a row please.  I noticed this guy sitting in the special education room.  He is an interesting character and has a very soft covering.  He sits on the desk looking like she would be laying an egg into a round container.

The uniform of the past is this W-G band coat.  It hangs on the wall above, looking down to the present band students.  My two sons wore this coat when they were in marching band back in the 1990's.  Of course instructors change and ideas change.  The band now wears slip over slickers of all the same color with blue jeans.  I think it is sad that they were retired as some of the bands in the area are moving back into this kind of uniform.  The larger schools are into performing in marching contests now and wear the hats with the fluffy ostrich feather.

 Another "off the wall" thing to share today is the photo of moose antlers.  The teacher I am subbing for is the owner and I do know the story behind them.  A previous high school science teacher had them and wanted someone to take them. They hang at the back of the room and everyone just knows that they are there.  I was looking around for things to shoot photos of and I thought wow, I almost missed that one.  It is a lot like not seeing the forest because of the trees.

I will finish off today with something coming from the ground.  I think they are daffodils and will know for sure in a few weeks when the buds shoot up from the ground.  We are promised rain storms today in the late afternoon and evening. It is another busy day.  Thanks for stopping by my blog.